Their self-tittled album was released on July 1, 2010. It was recorded at a cabin on the Upper Eau Claire Lake near Barnes, WI on April 24 and 25, 2010 and engineered, mixed, and mastered by Raymond Yates using Garageband and a random assortment of aged, dented, and otherwise well-loved microphones.

They also released a single that was recorded live at The Cedar Cultural Center 9/10/2010.

The band disbanded when Michael Matheny passed away in 2012. "El Dorado" is the long-awaited solo album, produced after Michael's death, featuring his original recordings with performances by friends and bandmates. It was released on April 28, 2017 and is available at CDbaby.

When Michael David Matheny died of cancer in February 2012 at the age of 45, he was well known in the Twin Cities Irish Music scene as a singer and songwriter, as a member of Gallowglass Irish Trio and The Long Straight Forever, and as a warm, funny, talented man. A few months before his death, he wrote this note for us:

"Faced with the harsh reality of a serious cancer diagnosis in 2010, I began to realize that none of us will be here forever. In early 2012, while undergoing chemotherapy and taking advantage of good days and nights as they came, I slowly began working on cataloging and archiving all the songs and tunes that I have written. Some songs also appear on various recordings here and there, and some are seen here for the first time. Many of these are songs that no one—not even those closest to me or my bandmates—have heard me play. I thought it would be nice to get them down, just for the record. "

In the end, he finished five tracks, and recorded many more. Unfortunately, some of his recordings were low-fidelity, captured with the equipment he had available for recording at home. Hoping for the best, we placed these recordings in the hands of Scott Keever. After more than a year of hard work, and with the help of Michael’s friends and former bandmates, Scott has created a fitting tribute to Michael’s talent. Three of the instrumentals (Lullaby, Kaia’s Reel, and Remission) were untitled when he died. For each song, we’ve listed the dates when it was written as well as when the original track was recorded.

We hope that you enjoy Michael’s music and share it widely. That is what he would have wanted.

We have a strong relationship with Les Tricards. The band from Colmar (France) has been releasing a lot of singles and EPs for free and they have always sent to us their new stuff straightaway. Les Tricards have just issued their debut album “Saint Pogo”. This time, it’s not free, but this should not put a damper on the sales: only 4 Euros for 12 songs is a gift.

Les Tricards is a solo project by Loran. Who is Loran? Loran and his brother Alain, aka the Duduche bros, were the bassist and drummer at Kromen, an Alsatian streetpunk/oi! band that was active between 1.991 and 1.996. Their mate Fred aka Randu (lead vocals) committed suicide in 1996. The Duduche bothers kept on rehearsing and writing music and then a new band was born with the help from some friends: 2’dTension. 2’dTension was active between 1997 and 2016, but Loran started a side-project in 2011: Les Tricards. Les Tricards is Loran’s solo band, but Alain adds the background vocals.

Les Tricards’ new delivery is a 12 track album. Loran has re-recorded two old songs, “Ma Révolution” from the “Ma Révolution” EP (2012) and “On est Tricard” from the “Un poing c’est tout” EP (2011). “La peste et le cholera” was previously released as a single too, but the other 9 tracks are never previously released songs.

“Saint Pogo” kicks off with “Chantez”. It’s an intro with almost no lyrics: a 1-2-3-4 shout and some “chantez, chantez, woah” and “chantez, Les Tricards, chantez, Les Tricards” (sing, sing, woah and sing, sing, Les Tricards). A good intro to sing along featuring attractive bass lines and pipes.

The next track reminds me of Bérurier Noir “Jim la jungle”. Obviously I’m not talking about the music, but about the lyrics. Excellent bagpipes (street)punk number.

“Saint Pogo” was advanced on YouTube before the album was released. Another streetpunk drinking number with Les Tricards DNA.

“Monsier Blanc Cassis” is a song about a beauf (beau frère, brother in law). In French, a beauf is a racist, a “ronchon” (grumpy) and a “réac” (reactionary, right wing). Mister Blanc Cassis feels that he’s got the blues. He doesn’t go to the pubs, he doesn’t quarrel with the muslim people and he is not going to the Front National rallies anymore. Finally, his wife tells him that he has not got the blues: he has evolved as a human being and he has the right feelings now. In other words, he’s not a stupid anymore. This song features Loran’s wife on female vocals.

The following track is a traditional number with new lyrics: “Dans les prisons de Nantes”. Maybe some fans will remember that the German band Waxie’s recorded this song on their debut album “The Prisoner” (1995). Les Tricards rendition is a kick-ass number to sing out.

“Le vent se lève” is a fast-paced number that streetpunk fans will enjoy. It’s followed by “La peste et le choléra”, a song about the French elections, and the bagpipes punk anthem “Ma révolution”. The new version of “Ma révolution” is a little bit shorter than the original, 3:00 instead of 3:39.

Track no. 9 will become soon a crowd favorite: “Ouarglo”. Amazing Celtic oi! number about drinking: we always promised that it’s the last one, but we keep on drinking.

The lyrics for the next song are a sort of tale about free will, an "unrequited love" and Jean de La Fontaine’s fable "The Fox and the Grapes”. Strange lyrics, but interesting music anyway.

The closing number is the new version of “Les Tricards”, the other calling card on the album. This time, the new version is longer than the original, 2:48 vs 2:44.

“Saint Pogo” is a digital release and can be bought from bandcamp. All of the lyrics in French are available at Bandcamp too.

Les Tricards haver their roots in the French oi! scene from the 90’s, that is, the Chaos Productions bands: Reich Orgasm, Kidnap, Les Collabos, Trotskids, Komintern Sect …. If you have downloaded Les Tricards previous releases, you know what to expect from their debut album. However, if you have never listened to Les Tricards and you love streetpunk, oi! and bagpipes, then give them a try.

Saturday, September 23, 2017

(This podcast was originally posted at Paddy Rock last August 16. Enjoy!)

Where
the Hell has the summer gone? Ohhh I know, into many empty pints that
have disappeared into the heat induced haze from the number of shows
that we have been to. This has been a
truly great summer of spectacular releases, and today’s episode is
going to bring you a bunch of them! So get ready to Paddy Punk Rock
& Roll through these last few dog days of summer and jam out to some
of the best releases of the year so far! Until next time
everyone… Be good, stay safe and don’t buy into the hate !

Celkilt - Better - StandCoast - No More Heroes - Windmills In The SkyThe Lucky Pistols - Girl at the Gallows - Where The Orioles FlyThe Go Set - Sing Me A Song (Live) - One Fine DayThe Go Set- The Miner’s Son - One Fine DayThe Go Set - All Our Friends - One Fine Day

At the beginning of 2017 I got an e-mail from Céline, a girl from France. She and her friends intended to play a St. Patrick’s Day gig and they needed the lyrics for Craic’s song “Hold the Penny”. I e-mailed Brett and he sent to me the lyrics straightaway. Céline got the lyrics and they played the show. A little video was shot and Brett got the copy. New bands usually choose to cover Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys stuff. The fact that some friends from Burgundy decided to cover “Hold the Penny” is a proof that Craic are an fantastic band.

“Sounds of Vandemark” is the new offering by Cleveland’s finest band. The band rehearses at a place on Vandemark Rd, hence the album title. Some line-up changes have occurred. Aleks Patsenko joined Craic last year to play electric guitar and James McWilliams is the new drummer. As they told on facebook in March, "tin whistler, Nikki Wolfe, has decided to step down. Nikki is one of the founding members of CRAIC and it has been an honor to work with such a talented musician for the past 7 1/2 years. She will remain a part of our family and will join us from time to time as a backup. She is also a huge fan of the band, so you will continue to see her in the crowd at CRAIC shows. She has handed the reigns over to our newest whistler, Theresa Kalka, and has helped Theresa get up to speed very quickly. We really appreciate the teamwork and we are excited about Theresa joining the crew". But don’t be misled: the band is in fine form. Once again they have worked with producer and ex-Dropkick Murphys member Ryan Foltz and have delivered a top-notch album.

There are 9 tracks on “Sounds of Vandemark”: 2 Irish standards, 2 covers and 5 self-penned songs. “Drunken Sailor” and “Rocky Road to Dublin” are the standards. Old member Nikki Wolfe plays tin whistle on both of them. “Drunken Sailor" starts off with some drums and after Brett begins to sing, the rest of the band arrive. Apart from the whistle and the kick-ass banjo, there is an interesting fiddle arrangement. “Rocky Road to Dublin” is also based on fiddle and tin whistle, and James does a great job on drums.

If the standards are quite obvious, the choice of the other covers is very attractive. “It’s Dangerous out There” is a Bill Morrissey’s song. This is the third track on which Nikki plays tin whistle. Bill Morrissey was an American folk songwriter and the original song can be found on his album “North” (1986). “Anything, Anything (I’ll Give You)” is a song from Dramarama’s debut album "Cinéma Vérité" from 1985. This song was featured on the “A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master” soundtrack. Craic’s rendition is a fiddle led song. Brett’s vocals are powerful, and electric guitar and banjo add something new to the song. Let alone James’ drums.

“20 Years later” original version was written by bassist Jason Kollar together with his high school mates Joey Kovach and Zach Biery 20 years ago. This drinking song is one of the album’s highlights: fecking good vocals à la Dropkick Murphys and excellent job by the girls on fiddle and tin whistle.

“Getting’ Up & Getting’ Out” has that bluegrass touch that made Craic famous. It's a lively number showcasing Jennifer and Mitch on fiddle and banjo. The bluegrass and cow-punk end is clearer on the amazing “Hal”. Jennifer’s fiddle is different on this cut too. “Wool” is a cut where all the band members showcase their musicianship. “Sounds of Vandemark” is over with “Cleveland”. If The Tossers have several odes to their hometown (Chicago), Craic have written the definitive anthem for Cleveland. No special title was needed for that track, just one word, “Cleveland”. One of the best songs of the year. Grab the album booklet and sing along!

Craic have shown again in less than 30 minutes that they are one of the most innovative bands in the Celtic punk scene. They probably have the best banjoist, awesome fiddle and tin whistle players and a charismatic frontman. Long live Craic!

So-Cal punk and Ramonesque pop punk influences can be heard on some Celtic punk bands. For instance, Drink Hunters and Irish Moutarde (Bad Religion and NOFX) and Tortilla Flat and Kitchen Implosion (Ramones). But there were no bands blending successfully Celtic punk with younger pop-punk sounds so far. Quite a few tracks on the Drunken Dolly’s “Alcoholic Rhapsody” follow that path, catchy songs with harmony vocals and infectious chorus.

The band from Rotterdam has delivered a solid debut album. More than 44 minutes of music and 14 tracks that will please their fan base and will make more followers to jump in. There is a lot of pop punk on the album, but also So-Cal punk, straight banjo and mandolin driven Celtic punk and more.

Three songs from their previous EP have been re-recorded for the album: “Drunken Man’s Curse”, “Humongous Tattooed Arms” and “That Kiss”. As the “Drunken Dolly and the Drunken Man's Curse” EP was reviewed here last year, I will not extend myself: those songs are Celtic punk classics.

Instead of stamping the Ramones 3 chords approach on their songs, Drunken Dolly have put some Blink 182 touches on them. “Endless Party”, “Time to Leave”, “Hold On”, “Alcoholic Rhapsody” and “Beware of the Fisherking” can be filed under that label. All of them are fast-paced songs with gang vocals, chorus to sing-along, manic mandolin and banjo picking and powerful guitar riffs.

Some Ramones echoes can be heard at the beginning of “Beware the Fisherking”, but similar sounds to Hoist the Colors or the early Lexington Field CDs can be noticed too. “Whatsherface” is a slower number that also reminds me of Lexington Field. "Sailor’s Song" starts off slowly, but soon it evolves into a kick-ass So-Cal punk number. Banjo and mandolin are excellent as usual. “Stop” has that Californian flavor too.

The brilliant single “No Regrets” and “Dear Friend” are European banjo led Celtic punk songs at its best. “Beat Up Good Johnny” is an old number (the original demo version can be found here). Flogging Molly’s spirit flies over this cut, an amazing song that also offers some ska-punk.

Drunken Dolly “Alcoholic Rhapsody” is a well-balanced album. There are different types of punk music and electric guitar mixed with banjo and mandolin. All of the songs are top-notch, but I’ve been really impressed by the pop punk songs. Ramones were the first band to bring the Beach Boys vocal harmonies to punk rock. The Queers brought that to a higher level. Now Drunken Dolly have taken that Beach Boys chorus and written some instant classics like “Endless Party” or “Time to Leave”. Hats-off boys.

Saturday, September 9, 2017

Multi-instrumentalist Jimmy Otis and songsmith Eddy Dyer, both formerly of The Reagan Babies have again joined forces to create The Droimlins, Lowell's newest Celtic Gypsy Punk outfit; regaling you with songs of Drinking And Rebellion.

If you love The Pogues, Balkan Beatbox, The Wolfe Tones, Tom Waits and The Dubliners, this is an evening you'll not want to miss!

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Sunday, September 3, 2017

"When I stepped on stage with Jack Flash for the last time, it was with a mixture of exuberance, a little sadness, and some relief. Relief that a big fear of mine hadn't come to pass. By the time our final gig came about, we were past due calling it quits. Interest in the band had waned, the six of us were spread across four different cities, and we all had different work and family commitments to occupy us. We were getting together a lot less often to jam, and shows were few and far between. Tom and I had even had a pretty serious disagreement over the vocal arrangement of a song. Artistic differences, just like a real band! My biggest fear in the last couple of years was that one day we would look back and realise, "oh fuck, that was our last gig. That gig we played where the sound was shit and only five people turned up, there was no rider and we didn't get paid. THAT turned out to be the last time we played together." Because life might have happened before we went out on our own terms. Someone might have got the shits and quit, or had to move far away. But it didn't happen like that. Somewhere along the line we made a commitment to each-other that we wouldn't call it quits until we'd recorded and released a final batch of songs, and we would play one final show in our home town of Toowoomba. And that's what we did. On the 4th June 2016, after a killer send off in Brisbane the night before, we played our last ever set in front of a packed room at The Irish Club Hotel. The crowd rewarded us by giving us their full attention and dancing like crazy for almost two hours straight. Oh we drew that shit out, you better believe it. If there's one time you're allowed to be self indulgent and play the majority of your back catalogue, with a lot of stupid banter and self-depreciative humour in between, it's at your last ever show. If you're a musician, you know how good it feels to make an audience move to a tune you've written (at least, you do if you play the sort of music that's conducive to dancing). Our last gig was everything we could have hoped it would be. There's a video floating around somewhere or us being hoisted onto the shoulders of our friends. We broke the stage! A marvelous capstone on almost 10 years together as a band. If you listen to this recording (kindly recorded live on the night be Justin Myers, and mixed and cleaned up a bit by Jake Hickey), you will hear that it is rough, raw, emotional fairly unprofessional, and with more than one bung note. But fuck me if we didn't mean every single note we played that night, because we played like it was our last chance. We played like we had nothing to lose, we played for the people who had supported us right from the beginning, and most importantly, we played for each-other.

We all know hard-working bands that are always on tour, for instance, The Mahones and The Real McKenzies. But there are also some younger bands that have released several CDs and are touring big festivals and small venues all over Europe, for instance Selfish Murphy from Romania and Jolly Jackers from Hungary.

Things are going too fast for Jolly Jackers. The band from Dunaújváros moved to Budapest. Unfortunately, former fiddler Krisztina Ujházy decided to leave the band at the end of January. She was the only band member who stayed in Dunaújváros because of her commitments. Nevertheless, she recorded the fiddle on "Blood, Sweat and Beer" in December 2016 and most of music was written by her too. Márk Fenyves is the new guitarist and he co-wrote the music for “Devil” with Krisztina and the music for “John not the Silver” with all the other band members.

“Blood, Sweat and Beer” was released last Saint Patrick’s Day. The album title showcases the band’s philosophy: hard work and a lot of fun can be compatible. The production is spotless and brilliant fiddle and flute are blended with amazing electric guitar. The songs are catchy and fresh as usual: kick-ass Paddy and the Rats influenced pub’n’roll songs like “Blood, Sweat and Beer” and “Hymn for the Gang”, a fantastic pirate number (“Back at Home”), a badass song with some ska punk and infectious chorus (“Drive”) and a superb ballad (“Let it Rain”).

Jolly Jackers “Blood, Sweat and Beer” comes in a jewel case with an 8 page booklet and has been released by Tom-Tom Records. This is another proof that six piece Hungarian band has reached the top. And this is not easy in the burgeoning Hungarian Celtic punk scene.